Feb 27, 2013; University Park, PA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions players celebrate during the second half against the Michigan Wolverines at the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State defeated Michigan 84-78. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

From the opening tip, both teams played intense basketball. The Wolverines, B1G conference’s youngest team, rode high flying Glenn Robinson III and big three point shots from Tim Hardaway, Jr and Trey Burke to an early 17-10 lead. Brandon Taylor was huge for the Nittany Lions early, though most of his efforts didn’t show in his final line (7 pts, 1 rebound). Taylor had a put back to close the margin to three, and then hit a three pointer to tie the game with 3:30 left in the first half.

Penn State used a combination of 3/4 and full court pressure to keep the game close until D.J. Newbill (17 points, 5 assists) hit two free throws to give the Lions a 34-32 lead. From that point on, it looked like Penn State was going to waste another good start and end up with a loss on Senior Night. After ending the first half with two turnovers, they allowed Michigan to open the second half on an 8-0 run. With 10:18 left in the game, Penn State trailed by 15.

Jermaine Marshall (25 points, 6-10 3pt FGs) took over from there, scoring 9 of the next 15 points. Marshall and Newbill are 2nd in the Big Ten in scoring backcourts (30.8 PPG), behind only Burke and Hardaway (34 PPG). When it mattered most, Marshall and Newbill put the Lions on their back. Marshall hit a three pointer to get them within seven, and the Newbill’s three got Penn State within five. Marshall capped a 23-8 run to tie the game at 74-74 with less than five minutes left. Trey Burke then had a costly turnover with 4:23 left; the country’s leader in turnover to assist ratio (4:1) ended up with six giveaways.

Feb 27, 2013; University Park, PA, USA; Michigan Wolverines head coach John Beilein reacts during the second half against the Penn State Nittany Lions at the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State defeated Michigan 84-78. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Marshall then benefited from a generous blocking call, hitting two free throws to give Penn State the lead. With the Bryce Jordan Center rocking at its loudest since GoGo Gadget, Penn State relied on free throws and an acrobatic layup by Marshall to close it out. Senior Sasa Borovnjak was responsible for three of the team’s last four made FTs and had nine points and five boards on the night. Penn State, who shot only 242 free throws in B1G play compared to 418 by its opponents, made 20-27 free throws (Michigan was 13-20).

Michigan, who has lost their last four road games in the B1G schedule, will try to rebound against top ten ranked Michigan State. Penn State travels to Minnesota, who just upset #1 Indiana, on March 2nd. They will travel to Minneapolis as underdogs once again but nobody will doubt their ability to pull off the upset after Wednesday night’s game. The Nittany Lions, a team who has been credited all season for playing hard while win after win escaped them, have finally gotten their first W of 2013.

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It’s got to be tough for a guy as intense as Penn State coach Pat Chambers to handle losing as often as Penn State basketball has this season. Chambers preaches effort and attitude above all else. We see his style on the floor when Penn State players dive — sometimes recklessly — after loose balls that may or may not be within their reach. For all that effort to come up short so often is probably very frustrating.

That’s why it was good to hear Chambers look for the silver lining after Penn State’s most recent defeat, a 71-65 home loss to Michigan in which the Lions trailed by as many as 19 before a second half rally closed the gap to 4. Chambers was particularly pleased with the development of freshman forward Ross Travis.

“I am excited for him. I’m excited for our future with him. He was terrific,” said Chambers regarding Travis, “He was the reason why we went on that run. Just kept balls alive, kept playing hard. He was making his free throws. He’s a special kid. And the thing about him — he’s earned the right to play like that. He lives in the gym. He wants to be good. He wants to be coached. I scream and yell at him all the time. He’s just like, ‘what else can I do, what else can I do?’ I love coaching him. And that’s why I think you’re going to see a lot more production out of him — In this game coming up, and in the future.”

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It’s usually a bummer when both of the team’s seniors are injured and unavailable to play on senior night, but at least in Penn State’s case, having Billy Oliver and Cammeron Woodyard on the sideline allowed some of the team’s future to shine in what looked early on to be a bludgeoning at the hands of Michigan.

Michigan loves to shoot three-pointers, but Pat Chambers did not seem to have his team prepared for the long range onslaught in the first half. The Wolverines came out hot, but Penn State was able to match them at first. Jermaine Marshall hit on his first two three-point attempts and Tim Frazier helped force turnovers on two consecutive Michigan possessions to give State an 11-7 lead early on.

However, Michigan kept firing, and when it wasn’t hitting from deep it was getting easy pick-and-roll layups thanks to some shoddy defense by Jon Graham. For the first half, Michigan shot 7 of 10 from beyond the arc and 14 of 20 overall. Particularly troublesome for the Lions was Evan Smotrycz, whose three-point prowess from the forward position gave Graham fits. Smotrycz would have 12 points at halftime but thankfully only 17 for the entire game.

Penn State only trailed 39-28 after the first half because their 36% field goal shooting was balanced out by 7 offensive rebounds and 4 of 7 three-point shooting. It turns out the offensive rebounds would keep State in the game for the long haul. Despite being outshot for the game 60% to 40%, the Lions only lost by 6 points because of their 15 to 4 advantage in the offensive rebounding department.

The second half would start out with more of the same. On one possession, Penn State grabbed three of its own misses but failed to score. State would get the lead down to 9, but then Michigan rolled off a 12-2 run that culminated with Smotrycz hitting yet another three with 11:24 to go.

Finally, as Michigan’s seemingly bottomless three-point well started to dry up, Penn State’s offense came to life. Marshall and Ross Travis combined for 11 points on a lightning quick 13-0 Nittany Lion run that left the home team down just 56-50 with over 5 minutes remaining.

The magic appeared to be over when Trey Burke saved a completely hapless Michigan possession from disaster by nailing a three-pointer while being fouled. The resulting four-point play stretched the lead up to 10, but then, incredibly, Trey Lewis pulled the same trick for State at the other end. We’ll all watch a lot of basketball before we see four-point plays on consecutive possessions again, and what seemed a few minutes ago like a snoozer was turning into a thrilling basketball game.

Of course, though, things did not end well for Penn State. Marshall hit a mid-range jumper with 2:40 left to bring PSU within 4 points, but after Stu Douglass clanked a three-point attempt for Michigan, Frazier rushed a layup on the ensuing possession and the Lions lost their last chance to draw closer. The teams would trade buckets, but then, with 41 seconds left, Tim Hardaway, Jr. pulled up from 10 feet away and sank a jump shot to make it 66-60. Jermaine Marshall responded with his own leaning 10-footer, but it rattled out and Burke’s next pair of free throws sealed the deal.

Nittany Lion Reviews

It was another game in which Penn State tried really, really hard and still lost. As I hinted at before, though, the game wasn’t without its bright spots. Marshall had a spectacular career night with 27 points on 10 of 18 shooting with 8 rebounds to boot. In the midst of that 13-0 run that gave us so much hope, Marshall drove right through the Michigan defense and threw down a spectacular dunk that would have put the crowd into berserker mode had the student not been on spring break. It was every bit the breakout game I was hoping would come from him and much, much more. I remember Tim Frazier starting elevating his game like this at the end of last year’s campaign, so there’s hope that Marshall reaches a new level next season.

Ross Travis was another dude who played completely out of his mind. I’ve noticed flashes of his potential since he first stepped on the floor, but today with Oliver and Woodyard on the bench and a soft Michigan frontcourt to bully, he really got to shine. Travis grabbed 5 offensive rebounds, which helped lead to 15 points on 5 of 5 shooting. I was also impressed by Travis’s free throw stroke, which was very smooth for a big man. He got to show it off by going 5 of 7 from the charity stripe.

Frazier was really bothered by Trey Burke’s excellent defense the whole game and he went just 4 of 16 from the field with 11 points. Of course, the Lion MVP still managed 5 assists and a handful of great defensive plays that helped PSU stay in the game.

While Travis was shining, Graham seemed to regress with a clunking 1 for 7 performance with 3 turnovers and no rebounds. Despite this and the weakness of Michigan’s frountcourt, Sasa Borovnjak only got on the court for 16 minutes and didn’t really get the chance to do anything. I thought I saw him get good positioning on Michigan center Jordan Morgan a few times, but his teammates were reluctant to pass him the ball.

Regrading the rest of the Lions:

• Matt Glover was surprisingly active with 4 offensive rebounds and 8 total. He even attempted three shots, but they were all no good.
• Trey Lewis played 21 minutes and was called on to defend Burke for most of that time. On offense, he only made one bucket besides the huge four-point play and finished with 6 points.
• Chambers may have finally given up on Collela, who played 8 minutes and did not record any stats at all. Club 8 Trill!

For Michigan, Smotrycz did not do all of the damage. Burke tormented the Lions for 19 points on 6 of 10 shooting, as he continues to be one of the best players in the Big Ten. Hardaway, Jr. added 13 points, but also turned the ball over 5 times. Morgan led Michigan with 5 rebounds, but he did next to nothing on offense and fell asleep during the Marshall dunk play on defense. Douglass led Michigan with 6 assists and also added 9 points. Zack Novak put in 11 points, but fouled out in only 25 minutes.

Next up is the Big Ten tournament. Penn State is the number 12 seed because they lost some sort of tiebreaker with Nebraska despite shellacking it the last time the two teams met. Indiana will be the first round opponent and Jermaine Marshall will likely need to catch fire again in order for Penn State to keep pace with the explosive Hoosiers offense. At least there’s one more game, right?

And for Billy Oliver and Cammeron Woodyard, thanks for the memories!

So what’s the hitch? In an ironic twist of fate, Trey Lewis had to split the award with Trey Burke. As you may remember, Trey Burke is a former Penn State commit who changed his mind after the Nittany Lion’s tough 2009-10 season and will now be taking his talents to Ann Arbor. For Nittany Lion fans losing a recruit is bad enough, losing one to Michigan is even more painful. (more…)

“To be honest with you, I love Penn State and I wanted him to stick it out,” said Mr. Burke. ”I think, the way he’s playing, he can go in and play right away and be better than [PSU point guard] Talor Battle. And get a great education.On the flip side, he was concerned if the staff would be there when he arrives. And then, the ability of getting some guys to come in there with him.”

While Penn State is technically still in the running, the combination of Burke’s rising stock as well as his growning list of offers all but eliminates Penn State’s chances of re-capturing Burke.–”Of course, we want to win, play at a Big Ten level, and get a great education. Trey felt he had all but one of those at Penn State.”

I’m going to go bang my head on the wall over and over again.

Class of 2010-2011 Commits:

Taran Buie— Rivals 150 (Scout Grade-93) Point Guard–Out with  concussion

Class of 2011-2012 Commits:

Trey Burke— Rivals 150 (Scout Grade-89) Point Guard–Trey Burke scores 23 points

Peter Alexis—(Scout Grade-87) Center–Alexis scores 41 Points (more…)

Since everybody and their brother (well, 4 guys and Taran’s brother) will be leaving after next year, the quality of recruits coming into the program will be critical to maintaining any sort of success that has been built on a span of the 2 seasons post-NIT. So far the success has been pretty staggering in Penn State regards. On the Ohio State weekend alone the program had visits from:

• Malcolm Gilbert C #10

• Desmond Hubert C #2

Either of these recruits committing to Penn State would be a huge step forward for the program and a greatly improve the chances of continued success. Currently Desmond Hubert looks to be the closest chance we have at nailing a top recruit as Maclome Gilbert is teammates with Rakeem Christmas; a highly reguarded recruit is being sought after by a good third of the country. Hubert currently has Penn State in his Top 4 and values academics as well as basketball, I guess that takes Ohio State out of the picture. His current top 4 include, Delaware, Georgia Tech, and LaSalle. The current convention around the program is that a solid season this year could cause Hubert to fall to the Lions, but as a young player and a ESPN ranking at 92, it isn’t hard to see the top 4 change to some more familiar names. (more…)